Planning for the Project

I'm slowly putting together a list of resources that contain information that will be useful to me.

Here are some quick resources I found that I will sort through later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Charter_High_School
http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/pennsylvania/city_charter_high_school
http://www.wpxi.com/highschool/18959184/detail.html -- having to do with the Robotics Team

Also, I'll have to come up with questions to ask future interviewees (which I probably should have confronted a long time ago. I'll figure it out once I get back to school in January.

Final Project

This is it.

I've finished my proposal. I fixed what was commented on, so I think I'll get a decent grade.

Unfortunately, I ran out of time to do the Lit Review outline.

We'll see how that affects my grade. Probably not too much.

Tomorrow I present my final project: a PowerPoint presentation on the details of my project.

Let's see how that goes...

Editing My Proposal

I'm currently editing my proposal with all the edits that Mr. Hamilton, Maranda, and Sienna suggest I make.

Basically, I just have to spunk up my attention grabber and add more details about what I'm doing with my project.

Shouldn't be too hard...

I'm also working on my final PowerPoint at this time.

Proposal Draft Finished

I finished my proposal draft today.
I'll check the comment when I get it back and correct it. I have a feeling I didn't use enough evidence of background research.

Ah well...

Off to take more notes...

Continuing My Proposal

I have several paragraphs done. Below, I have posted what I currently have done.

History is a major part of culture. Where someone came from, when something happened, how society functioned a certain time ago all contribute to the current condition of the world. Ever since the development of language, the human race has attempted to document what has happened during the present time. By documenting what has happened, it allows future generations, as well as the current one, to better understand the situation. It is in this way that documentaries are important. However, as with any event, there can never be enough details. Every event can be researched to the bone and then can branch off into other areas that will, in turn, connect to other areas. Eventually this will create a web of information that will embrace a wide topic. It’s knowing how to create a specific and focused web that produces the best documentaries. Informational documentaries should be able to provide the viewer with adequate information without overloading them with irrelevant facts. Another aspect of a documentary is its entertainment value. The information must be presented in a fashion that is appealing to the viewer and gets its point across at the same time. Despite whatever abundance of information, there is no substitute for lack of quality. What this project will be focusing on will be the process in creating an entertaining and informational documentary on the history and current condition of City Charter High School.
One of my future aspects is to become a professional video editor in the film industry. It is because of this that I have taken initiative in starting this project. I wanted to create a documentary for my action plan, as opposed to other movie genres, because I felt it was important to look at history and the actual world than a fantasy circumstance.
With that in mind, documentaries have many of the same challenges and situations that an action, horror, dramatic, and other genres of film encounter, along with some unexpected ones. While documentaries tend to be less expensive to produce, cost can still be an issue. Also, documentaries can be mostly made up of interviews with primary sources, a script is still needed. Because of personal interviews, this script can quickly turn into a mere guideline. All throughout the production, organization becomes essential, both in categorizing subjects and labeling scenes to the actual organization of the storyline of the documentary. This leads into the next point: How does one make sure the documentary stays on focus, and what is the best way to connect the scenes in order to convey the information that it focuses on? By creating my own documentary, I hope to experience these and other pressures and problems of creating a full-fledged film. I hope to take what I learn here and apply it to future projects.
[Insert Paragraph 3 Here]
As can be imagined, this project will take a lot of research in order for the turn out to be successful. The first tier of research will be on the actual process of creating a documentary and films in general. The research will have to be on what problems I might possibly encounter, what materials I will need in order to complete the video, what techniques and organizational methods should I be using, and how I should be going about doing them. This will include looking on the internet for possible blogs and articles on the methods and experiences of putting together a film and also conducting interviews with those involved in the industry in order to obtain a firsthand perspective on the process. From these resources, I can formulate my own plan of action for my documentary. The second part of the research process will be the research for the material the documentary will be focusing on. In this case, the focus will be on the history and current state of City Charter High School. This means that different sorts of sources, from newspapers to primary source accounts, will have to be used to create an accurate and thorough documentary on City Charter High School. These interviews will prove to be the vital, driving resource behind this video, since most, if not all, of them will be primary sources with unmatched expertise in the subject.

Grad Project Presentations

Today, we saw a handful of Graduation Project presentations.

Even though they were all a bit unfinished, I still feel as though many of them were lacking something.

One of the problems that I'm worried about is the time limit. If I have everything planned out, I could probably put together a good hour of good presentation content that I'll have to cut down to around 40 minutes.

I'll have to explain the reasoning of my documentary
What documentaries have to offer (why are they important?)
Talk about my essential question.
Explain my process of creating a documentary (What I had to do, how I researched, what materials I used, how did I set up everything, etc.)
Show a quick "behind the scenes" thing of me working on the documentary (maybe I can get Mike to help me? Perhaps I could use this video as some of the explanation of my materials and various things previously mentioned).
Then finally answering my essential question with my finished documentary on the history and current and future state of City High, which I want to be around 20-30 minutes...

We'll see how this goes

Proposal

I've currently started writing the basics of my proposal essay until I have a chance to look back over what I need to improve on my pre-proposal questionnaire.

Equipment and the Such...

Today I found another source that has helped me: http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/production/lightscamera/

This article is about what someone used and managed while filming a documentary cross country. It includes pictures of set-ups for interviews as well as tips on traveling with equipment.

It also appears that everyone is using the Canon XL-1 or XL2 for their camera duties. This has me relieved as this is what I'll be using as well. It makes me feel that end the documentary will probably look better.

Also, the microphone that the person uses is mostly a shotgun mic, which is one of the options I was looking at, as opposed to a wireless mic.

More Details on Film Production

Today I was pulled out of Illustration class to go listen to Ms. Johnson's brother, Jameel (sp?), who is a film director. He talked to us a little bit about what it's like in the film industry and showed us a trailer for a documentary that he made for a project while at film school.

I didn't get a chance to talk to him much, but he was very interesting.

Though not an official interview, this gave me a little more insight of film production...

At the Library

When arriving at the Main Carnegie Library in Oakland, I was astonished by the collection of books available.

Even then I could only find some of the sources I wanted.

Each source seemed to be a copy of the other, containing almost the exact same information, and information I happened to already know. However, one of the sources seemed like an excellent reference guide: a small book on short films and distribution.

I plan on buy this guide as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, at home I have several books on creating movies and writing scripts that I'm sure will be good sources.

I feel that this was a good research day though, showing me the wide assortment of material available at this library should I ever need it.

It's also a good day when I can use a Green Day song as a title.

Speaking of which, I looked up some information on using songs in film and TV. The prices are astounding, ranging from free (for simple exposure) to over $200,000. (http://www.howstuffworks.com/music-licensing.htm) I'm pretty sure I can rule out using any Top 40 songs in my documentary. I should start looking at independent artists and royalty free music sites in order to get music for my documentary, if it needs music at all...

Interview

I'm currently working on my interview questions.
The person I want to interview has yet to get back to me, but hopefully he will soon.

I've created 8 questions so far that might prove useful later in my research:

1. What other career fields come into play when editing a film?
2. What are some ways to keep organized while editing?
3. What challenges have you faced while editing and how did you manage to overcome them?
4. In what ways does the editor have an impact on the final product in terms of emotion and message?
5. How can a video be cut down, yet retain its original focus?
6. What needs to be done before the video gets into the editor’s hands?
7. How long does it usually take to edit a TV show?
8. How much footage should be captured to ensure that the editor has enough to work with?

It's been a while...

Recently, I've been working on my webliography; it has unexpectedly taken up much of my time these week, getting all the sources gathered and sorting through each one.

I've tried to get in contact with one of my dad's friends from high school, who is now a film editor for a soap opera (Young and the Restless I believe?). I think this will be a valuable source if I can get an interview with him.

No word back from the cinematographer yet coming to town. I'll still wait and see.

Yesterday, with the help of City High and the YMCA, I was able to attend a taping of the Steelers Huddle program at Heinz Field. It was interesting to see how they put the show together. It also showed me things I'll have to consider when taping my documentary.
Things like proper lighting (which I can find in several of my sources), microphones and sound, and organization. For example, at the taping they had note cards describing what to say and cameramen in the exact right position, along with what was going to happen and be talked about on each show. Though a documentary interview can't be scripted from the interviewee's point of view, it reminded me that I should create note cards of what is said so I can later organize all of it.

Maybe I should buy a cork board, index cards, tacks, and some yarn for all this later...

Researching by Watching

I've been trying to get myself into the "mood" of documentaries recently by watching them whenever I get the chance. Recently, I've watched clips of a documentary on Ben Franklin. This project will give me a chance to prove that I can do as good if not better than some documentaries, and I'm looking forward to that task.

Though the genre of my documentary and the ones I'm watching are somewhat different, the styles are pretty much the same. By watching them, I'm hoping to pick up on techniques of conveying information and organizing the information into a storyline.

Also, did you know...

• original documentaries were called "actualities" because they showed what "actually" happens.
• The term "documentary" was first coined in 1926 and covered a broad category of videos at the time.
• The first documentary as we know today made was South put out in 1919.

Documentary on Copyright

I watched a documentary over the weekend called "Rip! A Remix Manifesto" on copy right in the United States and how that affects peoples' lives. I watched it for several reasons: to watch how a documentary is edited, to see how the story is organized, to learn about copy right in movies and how that might affect me, and for entertainment.

This already has hit me with some questions...

How can I make a documentary that's interesting to other people?
Why will they watch my documentary?
What makes me want to watch a documentary?

Usually it is because I'm interested in the subject or because I want to hear an opinion. I'll need to think about how I'm going to make my own documentary appealing to others. This will be a bit different, however, since this is not an opinionated movie and simple a statement of facts and information about City Charter High School.

This leads me to another question...

How am I going to get this out there for people to see?

Through DVD's? Mailing list? Online resource?
I'll have to find that out.

Graduation Poster Draft

Did you know....

• Documentaries are some of the most successful movies because they are often low or no budget? This means that almost any profit made through distribution is a positive


• The first movies ever created were considered documentaries because they documented small tasks


• The most expensive documentary ever made, Earth cost over £8 billion, which is about 12.68 billion US dollars


• The longest movie ever made is a documentary, which was 24 hours long and named Grandma Martha

More to come as I find them.

How much can a documentary cost?

For this question, I'm going to find the different costs of producing a documentary. First, I will evaluate my set-up listed in the check list below. Then, I will look at cheaper alternatives as well as the budgets of some well known documentaries.

My Setup:

Object/App	Cost
(Camera) Canon XL2	$3,400.00
(Editing) Adobe CS4 Production Premium	$1,399.00
(Sound mixer) Behringer 2442FX Mixer	$519.99
Microphones	TBD
Tripods	TBD
Tripod Mic Stand with Telescoping Boom	$19.99
Nady American Starpower X2 Dual VHF Wireless Microphone System	$29.99
Total	$5368.97

Notes: I don't have to pay for the Adobe CS4 package since it's installed on my school laptop already. I have included the cost if someone wishes to duplicate what I have done.

Checklist

This is what I have so far. There might be more equipment to add to this list, but this is what I'm sure I have:

• 2 Cameras
  
  
  
  • Canon XL2 (Link)
  
  
  • Canon XL1S (Link)
  
  
  
  


• Wireless Mic System (Clip on microphones and the system)


• Microphones


• Editing Program (Adobe Premiere CS4)


• Sound Editing Program (Adobe Soundbooth CS4


• Graphics Program (Adobe Photoshop CS4


• Several Tripods


• Behringer Mixing System (Link)

That list doesn't seem long, but I don't think I'll need much to do the interviews and shots.
I wasn't able to test a set-up this weekend, but I will over the mini-break.

Essential Questions

Possible essential question: What is the process in creating an entertaining and informational documentary about a subject?

Possible focus questions:

How much can a documentary cost?
What kind of materials will I need?
How do I research the material?
What is the best way to convey the research to the audience?
How much footage should I have?
How can I condense the script, yet keep it informational?
Who can I ask about the different aspects of a documentary?
What is the best way to organize the story?

Focus

Here is an outline of what I plan to include in the final documentary and what I will need to focus on or learn about for each part.

City High: High School @ Life Speed

• History of the School
  
  
  
  • History of the founders - Interviews with Dr. Wertheimer and Mr. Zinga
  
  
  • How the school formed - Interviews
  
  
  • Early Years - Interviews with staff that have been here from the beginning
  
  
  • Events that have happened - Research on events the school participated in, or events that happened during the school's time.
  
  
  
  


• Extras - Interviewing staff members that have had worked with activities around the school, as well as looking up information about them.
  
  
  
  • Robotics - Pictures and video from competitions. Interviews
  
  
  • Drama Club - Footage from past plays. Interviews
  
  
  • Digital Media Club - Examples of work
  
  
  • Tech Team (maybe ?)
  
  
  
  

These are just the rough ideas I've had. I'll have to cut some out and expand on others in order to narrow my focus.

If I have time this weekend, I'm going to set up a test interview in order to see if everything works as I have it planned out. I'll have to make sure that I can get the best quality audio for the interviews, otherwise they'll be useless.

All-in-one

This project will be easier but also harder because I am the only one working on it.

Usually, the scriptwriter, the cameraman, the editor are all separate people, where their job is their only job.

I, however, am taking over all of these roles.

It will be easier for me because I will have control over every single aspect of the process. All decisions will be made by me, and I will be able to understand each part of the process will blend. There will be almost no communication errors unless I make a mistake beforehand.

It will be harder because I will have to do more work. If I have a question, I will have to look up the answer myself. If I get help, however, I can probably make the job easier by dividing up small tasks.

I'll have to plan this out with this in mind in order to keep it as smooth as possible.

Organization

Organizing research into a comprehensive story basically involves cutting and pasting
and seeing which bits of material can follow and ‘flow’ into each other. A good technique
is to write down each piece of information in a few words on a post-it or cue card or
simply any small piece of paper. For example: one post-it could state “Whales regularly
beach themselves in large numbers” and another one could say “Sue looked into the
whale’s eyes and cried” etc. Then, stick the post-its in random order on a blank board or
wall in columns and rows. After that, the scriptwriter must start a painful process of
plucking, discarding and re-sticking until he forms an information chain, which tells the
story the writer wants to tell. The only requirement of the story at this stage is that the
information must ‘flow’ and all the futile bits of material are discarded. It’s now time to
start thinking about writing that script.

I'm really liking this kind of organization method. I also like the "tree method" way of writing a script, starting out with the main parts, the trunk and eventually minding my way to the branches, the details and other areas.

The Research

Therefore, the first step in the research process would be
to develop a healthy interest and curiosity about the subject of the film. The scriptwriter
must ask himself some important questions:
· What have I not yet been told about this subject?
· Is everything I have been told the truth? How much do I need to verify?
· What would I personally like to know about this subject?
· If I were a member of the audience, what would I want to learn about this
subject?
· What can I find that is little known on this subject?
· If the shooting has not yet started, what information can I gather that
would aid the filming process?

- How to Write a Documentary Script

I feel that these questions will be valuable in researching City High for my final product. There are a lot of things to consider while doing the research, and I think I will need to learn more about writing a script in order make the final script for the product the best it could be.

References

Documentary Definitions
http://www.mediaknowall.com/Documentary/definitions.html
Documentary Films - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary
Documentary Film Production
http://www.noendpress.com/caleb/documentary_film/
New Frontiers in American Documentary Film
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Huffman/Frontier/define.html
The Grammar of TV and Film
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/gramtv.html
The Hidden Cost of Documentaries - New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/movies/16rams.html
How to Write a Documentary Script
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/24367/11757852251documentary_script.pdf/documentary_script.pdf
Make Your Own Documentary
http://documentaryfilms.suite101.com/article.cfm/make_your_own_documentary_film
WQED Multimedia - Rick Sebak
http://www.wqed.org/tv/pghist/sebak.shtml
Price Pro for Hire
http://videomaker.com/community/blogs/videonews/2009/04/4414-what-price-pro-for-hire/
How to Film an Interview - Family Videos (UK)
http://www.familyvideos.co.uk/filming-interview-tips-techniques.html

BBS Documentaries
  http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/production/lightscamera/
JR Martin Media
  http://www.jrmartinmedia.com/developing-a-documentary-project

The Process

I'm going to link to this post in the sidebar, as it will contain what I'll need to do in order to make a documentary, as well as give me references for later.

Purpose

Documentaries have different purposes. They can simply record events (like a birthday party or other home video). They can try to persuade someone by showing facts from one point of view (think Michael Moore). Other reasons could include informing an audience about an event, person, place, or thing. (http://www.mediaknowall.com/Documentary/definitions.html).

Another resource lists four purposes that may be more clear:

• to record, reveal, or preserve
• to persuade or promote
• to analyze or interrogate
• to express

(http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Huffman/Frontier/define.html)

Structure

"One drawback in exploring the production of documentaries is that there has never been a set structure to the documentary" (New Frontiers - Interpret).

Even if there is no set structure, I'm sure there is a common process.

Redirection

A quick fact about documentaries:

• The first film clips ever (in the late 1800's) were considered documentaries, showing small films of "a train entering a station, a boat docking, or factory workers leaving work" (Documentary - Wikipedia). They were called "actualities" at the time.

As Ms. Savido told me just, literally, moments ago, I'll have to focus more on the process of documentary film making more than the history and everything. So it is the, "how?" and not the "what?".

As posted about two or three posts ago, that web site on the process will probably be a great guideline later on down the road.

However, I'm going to continue to do a little more research on the "what?" of documentaries in order to achieve an understanding of what they want to accomplish.

Subtle Research

No major breakthroughs as of yet.

I think I'm going to try to avoid Wikipedia as a direct source as much as possible. Possibly use it as a guide or taking off point and do my own research from there.

My major problem at this point is with database articles. They've never fared well with me and it seems like a lot of work for a resource that is not accurate when it comes to searching.

I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Until then, I'll just do some general researching to get an idea of what I'll need.

So far I've found that documentaries can be a very broad subject, even when it's just a subcategory of the whole film industry. Within documentaries are "mockumentaries" (Something done in the style of a documentary, though it may not be a factual documentary. Something along the lines of This is Spinal Tap and Bruno), "rockumentaries" (a documentary done on Rock music and it's groups or concerts), among other subcategories I have yet to look into.

I hope I'm heading in the right direction...

Possible Interviews

I found people that I could possibly use for information or an interview if needed.

One is an editor that went to high school with my dad. He currently does editing for soap operas and I've heard that he's won an Emmy or an award of that sort.

Also today I received a business card for a cinematographer that might also help me. He's supposed to be helping out on a new movie that's to be filmed in here in Pittsburgh. I pretty sure that this is the movie "Love and Other Drugs".

Can't wait to see how this turns out!

Expanding on Idea 2

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with idea number two on my small but thought-out list. The project will be sure to be fun and interesting, as that's what I'm interested the most in at the moment.

I started doing research on film making, specifically documentaries, and found a nice little site that gives me a rough idea of the troubles with this process (http://www.noendpress.com/caleb/documentary_film/). It's only one view though, so I'll continue to do research on the process.

I also plan to look at the history of this genre of film and how it got started.

Examples might also be a good idea?

Graduation Project Ideas

Here we go, the ever important Graduation Project.

I haven't heard much about it, though it is a crucial part of graduating from City Charter High School. I know a few previous seniors that have gone through this same experience, though they didn't go into much detail.

As for my graduation project, I have a few ideas that I'm considering.

One is a website that would be used for volunteering. There are few volunteer websites out there right now, ones that require a zip code and maybe an email address in order to send updates. While this would meet many people's requirements, I feel that I could do a much better job of this and go into more detail that would help people at some point in the future. It would keep track of individual's progress and offer more features, like the option of creating groups for community service and profiles. For example, if a church needed a set number of volunteers on a certain day, users of the site that live in the area would receive updates on this event. Also, users could set interests so that they may receive more personalized results and feel more compelled to help out at an event. There are more features I'm thinking of working on. This project would probably require the most research. I'd have to find out more about what people would expect and want from a site like this through interviews and surveys and find out more about the back end of the website, the programming and security issues. Though requiring the most work, this project could be expanded on in the future after high school if successful.

Another idea I had was for a video history of City High, fully detailing the facts of how the school started and how it got to where it is today. This would not be unlike the Rick Sebak documentaries on WQED. This would require a lot more interviews with people, though sources would not be as vast. Luckily, I would have Dr. Wertheimer and Mr. Zinga as reliable sources if they would agree to interviews. I feel that this project would be more in tune with what I want to do later in life, which is primarily video editing.

Both projects have their pros and cons. I feel that the first idea would cause me to become burnt out with programming and the second idea doesn't seem to offer much to the community, except for maybe a premiere where the ticket sales could be donated to a charity related to the project. In a way I'm leaning towards the film project, as that would be more interesting to me, but the volunteer project would be more useful.

UPDATE: After researching my first project, I found a website that somewhat matches what I want to do: http://www.idealist.org/en/about/firsttime.html It does some of the things I want to do, which discourages me somewhat from the first idea, seeing that the idea has probably already been done.

UPDATE: I looked at the Wikipedia page for City High (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Charter_High_School) and I found that, though it might not be reliable, it offers a good idea of what I would need and what I could do with the video project, including mentioning the Robotics team and other school activities.